Costa del Luz, January 2004
To flee the gruesome weather at home and to give the old brain a rest I booked a package golfing break (Pin High Golftravel) to the Costa del Luz. Flying to Faro in Portugal and an hour's drive from the airport to the hotel Riu Atlantico in Ayamonte. The Costa del Luz is the southernmost bit of Spain mainland bordering Portugal. It is pretty confusing that there is an hour timedifference between the 2 countries. When you cross the border almost every day you can easily miss a tee-off time or your flight back home. But I've managed to avoid both! The trip came with a small car that you need to get to the golfcourses (usually about a 45 minute drive away) and that gave me the chance to explore the region. As you can see by this hall the hotel is quite big, 450 rooms I think, and thoroughly recommendable. Good rooms and very good food. Nothing to moan about this time.
Jerez the la Frontera is the sherry capitol of the world. 2,5 hours by car to get there from Ayamonte but well worth it. I visited the Gonzales Byass bodega to do a tour and have a taste of the stuff. Interesting, but I'll stick to wines for now. Jerez has a lively old town center and the cathedral is just on the fringe of that. Here's a few shots of that with (of course) oranges everpresent.
I arrived January 16th, most days it was pretty cold in the morning with temperatures as low as 3 degrees centigrade. During the afternoon temperatures would rise to about 16 degrees. Despite lovely sunshine it wouldn't feel any warmer than that as there was a cool wind blowing at all times. But fine weather for golf and for roaming about. There were a few moments were dark clouds spelled rain, but it never actually got to that. This is the Rio Grande Harbour. The first golf course I played was Islantilla. It would have been a nice course if not for all the appartments sometimes almost ON the fairways;-) Compared to golf in Holland in the winter it was heaven but I prefer the not-so-commercial-resorts.
Like the Benamor course. Near the town of Tavira, halfway between Faro and the Spanish-Portugese border. Shortish holes and lightning fast greens means an interesting round. A few miles from Tavira is the (still) authentic village of Sante Luzia. Peter and Frederika come here frequently so I thought I'd have a look around to see what they are on about. I had some fantastic sea food in a tiny restaurant. Plus the place is really friendly and scenic so I guess I'll be back there some day.
Sevilla was a good 1,5 hours by car and seems to me a city that is worth a longer visit. A large city with crazy traffic, many students and a lot of tourists but despite that it has so much going for it. Large and beautiful parks, stunning buildings and lots of tapas bars. This gigantic building was built for the 1929 Latin American Exhibition and it is stunning. Semicircular and by my estimation about 600 yards wide so the picture only reveals part of it but it isn't the sheer size that impresses. When you come closer all the coloured bits turn out to be tiles showing scenes from spanish history. Here's an example of what it shows at the Malaga niche. I am not an architectural buff as you well know but it captured my imagination.
Errmmm... did I mention the oranges? In any case .... there are lots and lots of them. This obviously is outside Sevilla, the cathedral of course smack in the city centre. I didn't go in and instead roamed the ancient narrow streets behind the cathedral. Worth your while.
As the week drew to an end I travelled a bit more inland in Portugal, just east of the Rio Grande river that seperates Portugal from spain. What struck me was that just 10 miles from the motorway the roads are still great but at the same time the villages still seem authentic and at least not very busy. Whereas near the motorway on the spanish side of the border most of the land was cultivated (and very bare in the winter) and anywhere near a rivermouth or a golfcourse the appartments and hotels are mushrooming. And 'sleeping policemen' (speedbumps outside the UK;-)) galore. So there you have it. Fantastic towns to visit in Spain and not as much mass tourism in that bit of Portugal. To wet your appetite this is the sea-food section of the hotel. All food freshly prepared and wines for not too much money. So I gained about 5 pounds in the process. Don't complain later and say I haven't warned you.
